Hawaii
(1966)- Drama

Hohum Score

92

Hohummer

An American missionary and his wife travel to the exotic island kingdom of Hawaii, intent on converting the natives. But the clash between the two cultures is too great and instead of understanding there comes tragedy.

“ I read and found most amusing and predictable some of the comments in IMDb about the film written by politically correct, holier-than-thou people, who are trying to pretend to be shocked by they way that missionaries from USA spread Christianity across the world, and of course making innumerable references to racism !

“Manu Tupou Despite the issues mentioned, this is a fine and entertaining film.

“ The book was much better, as is always the case in movies, but in my opinion, far too long.

“ It's a remarkable and entertaining performance.

“ "Hawaii," based on about one-third of the Michener novel, is one of those big, old-fashioned epics, full of wistful vistas, compelling performances, and casts of thousands.

“ Well, as far as the "unChristian" debate; it's pointless.

“ Pretentious Politcal Correctness .

“ I have to admit that there are some very, very long dull patches in this movie.

“ But the script is dull, reads like a dime-store children's novel, and in effect lent nothing to play.

“Julie Andrews' acting abilities shine as bright as the tropical sun in this story of a New England woman who accompanies her stodgy husband to the islands on a mission to convert the heathens.

“ The pace is very slow and von Sydow's character is very annoying.

“ The pre-credit sequence, a narration of how people first came to Hawaii 800 or so years ("30 generations") before, is quite poetic and visually stunning.

“ Her story is much more fascinating anyways.

“ But when you find the lead character so unwatchable, it undermines the entire story.

“ This movie is unwatchable.

“ I saw this on TV many years ago and thought it was one of the worst movies I'd ever seen.

“ Zhivago" or "War and Peace" and although I loved the previous two films,"Hawaii" was much more exciting.

“ Beautifully made, wonderful music BUT gets very BORING mainly due to Von Sydow's character.

“) The film uses one fascinating (and very effective) device: some scenes end with the first few lines of dialog of the next scene coming up "early", as a way of propelling the film forward.

“Hawaii is a far from perfect picture, being neither quite the stunning extravaganza that epics are generally meant to be, nor the stirring human drama it also seems to aspire to.

“ This film is beautifully filmed and scored, but in watching it again, I found it slow and somewhat overacted, I think, particularly by Von Sydow.

“ An example is when Iliki runs to greet Richard Harris's ship, throwing off her western dress, a moment which seems rather contrived and clunky by the way the camera pans down onto the discarded garment.

“ Russell Harlan's cameras capture the islands at their most beautiful, and Elmer Bernstein's haunting, evocative score is one of his best.

“This was an extremely beautiful film and had a lot of fascinating insights into the old Hawaiian culture and royalty (though the whole business about the Queen's husband plucking out his eyes was a bit nasty).

“ The characters are unsympathetic and boring.

“ The weather is breathtaking.

“ I watched to the end because I was interested in some of the characters and the scenery was gorgeous--but I was mostly bored by the slow pace and von Sydow's histrionics.

“ Dull, unsympathetic, lifeless .

“ The film's music score penned by the late Elmer Bernstein is breathtaking and I believe the theme music became the state song.

“ It's more compelling to see her navigate her restricted roles in an expanded world.

“ Elmer Bernstain's music is superb and the photography visually stunning.

“ Worth watching if you can stay awake!!

“ Miss Julie Andrews goes from bright as a button to worn out drab in short order and not,I'm afraid , terribly convincingly.

“ Michener novel and though the production values are all first rate, the script stagnates to the point of being sleep inducing when it should be sweeping.